{"id":749577,"date":"2017-12-15T14:15:27","date_gmt":"2017-12-15T14:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arkcenter.us\/?p=749577"},"modified":"2017-12-15T14:15:27","modified_gmt":"2017-12-15T14:15:27","slug":"elephants-are-autonomous-and-conscious-and-deserve-their-day-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=749577","title":{"rendered":"Elephants are autonomous and conscious, and deserve their day in court"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>EPHRAT LIVNI:<\/strong> <em>\u2018 \u201cLegal personhood\u201d is not as straightforward as it sounds. For example, in the US, corporations are considered \u201clegal people\u201d in certain contexts because it\u2019s recognized that an entity can also be a \u201cperson\u201d\u2026 The Nov. 13 lawsuit, filed in state court, argues that a \u201cperson\u201d is not a \u201chuman being\u201d but an \u201centity with the capacity for legal rights.\u201d As such, captive elephants Beulah, Minnie, and Karen are \u201cpersons within the meaning of Connecticut law\u201d and so entitled to a hearing on the basis of a writ to \u201cbring the body,\u201d known in legal parlance as a petition for habeas corpus\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>The [Nonhuman Rights Project] animal-rights advocacy organization is arguing that the three elephants, who range in age from 45 to 50 years old, are \u201cpersons\u201d being held unlawfully against their will, in harsh conditions, each after a lifetime of servitude, and should be released to a sanctuary.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>It\u2019s a creative argument, and one that might not succeed. The same advocacy group attempted similar litigation on behalf of chimpanzees in New York and failed. But it isn\u2019t a crazy argument to make: claims that have seemed absurd to a culture at one point\u2014like the right to equal protection under the law for all people regardless of race or gender, or the right to marriage regardless of sexual preference\u2014become commonplace decades later. This is how rights are made and cultures change\u2019.<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/qz.com\/1131762\/elephants-deserve-legal-rights-because-of-their-consciousness-argues-a-new-us-lawsuit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>SOURCE\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED VIDEO:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jU1LWiXy7n4\" width=\"650\" height=\"350\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EPHRAT LIVNI: \u2018 \u201cLegal personhood\u201d is not as straightforward as it sounds. For example, in the US, corporations are considered \u201clegal people\u201d in certain contexts because it\u2019s recognized that an entity can also be a \u201cperson\u201d\u2026 The Nov. 13 lawsuit, filed in state court, argues that a \u201cperson\u201d is not a \u201chuman being\u201d but an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":749578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[34,35],"class_list":["post-749577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kisnship","tag-personhood","tag-protection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=749577"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":749579,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749577\/revisions\/749579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/749578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=749577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=749577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=749577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}